Wait, Who Is Being 'Political'?

Israel's Education council is angry over a decision to upgrade Ariel College status.

The College of Judea and Samaria in Ariel can upgrade to a "university center" following a decision by the Council for Higher Education in Judea and Samaria (CHE-JS), the body which oversees curricula at academic institutions in the territories. The college will be granted temporary recognition as a university for five years, during which it will be termed a "university center."

A member of the national Council for Higher Education (CHE) - the body responsible for academic institutions in Israel - said the CHE-JS had "pulled a fast one." Several members of the CHE told Haaretz they were unaware of the decision.

CHE-JS posed a single condition for granting the status of "university center" - opening master's programs in four departments. The college currently offers an M.A. in social work, and the CHE-JS is reviewing the college's application to open master's tracks in psychology, electrical engineering and electronics, and business administration.

...In August 2005, Limor Livnat, who was education minister at the time and a staunch supporter of Ariel College, instructed the CHE-JS to form a committee to evaluate the college's academic activity and draft recommendations on upgrading it to a university.

This committee was made up entirely of top-notch scholars, but all right-wingers: "Their conclusions were forgone," says a CHE member. Their report stated that, "The college already functions in effect as a university to all intents and purposes, except for areas prohibited to it as a college." Enraged CHE officials sent a letter to CHE-JS, charging that the committee's appointment is "a grave step, which smacks of intervening in the authority of the PBC."

The PBC ruled against establishing "another university in Israel of the existing model" in the next five years. The CHE-JS committee's convoluted wording gave it an opening to approve recognition of Ariel College as a university without explicitly contradicting the PBC ruling.

Why not spread knowledge? And who is really being 'political' in this case?